Hey, Sharon, where are you domiciled? Well, I am domiciled in Garner, North Carolina right now. But I'd like to have this house you've got here. I thought that was your house. Maybe before we downsized. Well, today we're going to be talking about domicile. And really, a lot of people are going to go, why should I care about that for sure? But it does come up a lot, especially with CRNAs that are traveling. And it can really have a big impact on your taxes and on inheritance as well, depending upon where you're actually domiciled and live, if something were to happen to you or your family. So we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about this and going through it. So I guess the first thing is, what is domicile? I mean, there's a difference between having a residence and being domiciled. Your residence is really just where you live, but your domicile is your permanent legal home address. There could be a difference. For example, Sharon, let's say that you're traveling to Florida to work and you're there for six months. For six months, that's where your residence is, right? But you're maintaining your domicile in the state of North Carolina in Garner, and that is where you're domiciled. And then it goes to the important factors. And different states have different rules on this, and we're not trying to tell anyone how to do this today. We're just giving you things to think about. You need to really talk to an attorney and make sure that you're doing this correctly if this is what you're trying to do. Where do you vote at, Sharon? Are you registered to vote in North Carolina? Are you registered to vote in Florida? I'm in North Carolina. There you go. Why are you trying to vote in Florida? You know, that's illegal, Sharon. Hanging chads. Where do you pay your taxes? Everybody, and this is the big deal for a lot of our clients. They want to be domiciled in a state such as Texas or Tennessee or Washington or Florida that has no state income tax. But then you get into all these other avenues and other things. Where do your legal documents reside? What does that mean? Well, did you know when you've got a will, it's very state-specific? And your will, because every state's law is different, your will is written in your state. So if you move to Florida, you'd probably want to update it with Florida law, right? Where's your doctor at, Sharon? I have doctors in Lexington, where I lived for the majority of my life, and I have doctors in Garner. Right, but it's still in North Carolina. It's still in North Carolina. These are important factors. You know, if you're traveling around, then, you know, most of the time people will hear, you know, I got to spend six months and one day there. Maybe. There are a lot of things to look at. You know, they've even looked at cell phone bills to see where you reside. I mean, you try to get out of paying taxes in the state of New York. That's all I'll say. New York will track your cell phone. They'll track you out of the state. You know, there's just a lot of factors that go into it. So when you change your domicile, it's more than just moving to your new house. You have to demonstrate an intention to make that your permanent home. And all these things we've been talking about, you know, voting registration, your car insurance, are your cars titled in that state? Do you have your doctor there? Is your lawyer there? Are your wills there? You know, all the things that make us part of a community and live in that community, these are things that come up. You know, we'd all like to not have to pay taxes, but you need to be doing it legally. If you're going to domicile in one of these states that has a lower tax bracket than you're in currently, or if you're going to domicile in a state that has no state tax, which is typically the reason that people do this. So that's what domicile is, okay? Legal definition, there are different tests. There's a legal and factual test that they look at. The factual test really examines where you actually reside and spend the most amount of your time. That goes back to six months in one day, basically. You spent the majority of your time in the state. And then the legal side of this, okay? And that's what we've been talking about, your voter registration, your tax filings, and so forth. The physical presence and your intention, what is your intention here? Is your intention to stay in this place? Or is your intention to go back to another place? And sometimes these are hard to determine if you kind of think about it, because it's hard to judge someone's intent except by their actions. So if your actions say, I'm going to live in Florida, then you're probably okay. Then you're probably okay. If your actions say, I'm actually from New York, I love New York, I'm going to go down to Florida and visit a little bit, but I'm coming back to New York. What do your actions say? So those are big, big determinants there. The tax implications, you know, the state in which you pay income taxes and the state taxes, which is domicile, okay? That is really where this comes in 95 percent of the time. You also get certain credits and tax deductions in certain states and exemptions. This is the big reason that people care about domicile and where they're domiciled at and so forth. These are usually the reasons for that. And there's so much misinformation out there about this. You know, I get a lot of senior aides who think, oh, just because I worked in this state, you know, I don't have to pay taxes there. Well, that's not necessarily true. You know, if you work in a state, you're supposed to pay tax in the state in which you work. So if you leave North Carolina, Sharon, and you go up to New York to work, then whatever you made in New York is subjected to New York state tax. What happened during COVID when all those people went up there to work? They should have reported that money to New York, for sure. If you go to California, you know, I've seen recruiters do this, Sharon. You know, they recruit someone who's a CRNA in Florida, and they'll get them a 1099 job in New York or California or one of the higher tax states, Illinois, not explaining to them this little caveat that if they stayed in Florida and worked, they'd have zero state tax. And they went to New York or New York City. I mean, everybody wants to go to New York City. You can have city taxes. Then you've got state taxes. You can have local taxes. Ohio, a lot of these places have these different taxes. And if it's not explained properly, you spent your time going up to New York thinking you were making more money when ultimately you came out and you were making less money because of all the additional tax. Just things to pay attention to. Establishing and maintaining a domicile. Again, demonstrate your intention to move to a new location, change your voters, your driver's license, your insurance, all those types of things. Pay your local taxes. Do local social connections. Be involved in the community if they ever asked because some states are getting very, very picky about this. North Carolina doesn't like it if you don't pay your taxes here, Sharon. But if you're keeping strong ties to that previous location, if you're not updating your legal documents, those things, those can be things that could be looked at if it was ever investigated. And some states are definitely taking this to a different level right now.

CRNAs

domicile

taxes

inheritance

residency